Herzeleid (album)
Herzeleid is the debut album by Rammstein. It was released on September 25, 1995, and on November 24, 1998 in the US.Official Rammstein website }} Information Recording The recordings started in Sweden, in the Polar Studios. The band stayed in that studio for one week, where they only recorded the drum tracks. After that, they moved to the private studio of their producer Jacob Hellner. Jacob would only work during the day in the weeks. So in the evenings and on the weekend, the band was alone. None of the band members spoke good English, nor Swedish, so they couldn't go out anywhere, which led to a frustrating mood inside the band. All recordings took the band three months. After that Jacob was the first one to mix the album. Richard was the only band member present during mixing, and after he understood that Jacob had no idea what he did there, they started arguing and things were not getting done. So Richard called everyone in Stockholm: band, Jacob, the management and the label. They decided someone else has to mix the album, which is how they got to Ronald Prent. The mixing with him was done in Hamburg, and though they had some arguments and disagreements with the mixing, Richard thinks that he saved the album. Writing The first song written for this album was Rammstein, which was also the first song ever written by the band. The last song to be written was most likely Asche zu Asche since it wasn't played at their concerts in 1994, unlike all the other songs. A few songs were written in English before they were translated into German. There are also eight songs known from that era that did not make it onto the album: #Jeder lacht (lyrics were later recycled for Adios from Mutter.) #Unknown instrumental song #Schwarzes Glas #Wilder Wein (later a demo was released on Engel (Fan Edition), a finished live version appeared on Live aus Berlin.) #Alter Mann (later released on Sehnsucht with new music and slightly different lyrics.) #Feuerräder (later released on Engel (Fan Edition), still in demo phase.) #Tier (1994) (also referred to as Biest, a fanmade title. Not to be confused with the later released Tier from Sehnsucht.) #Tiefer gelegt Artwork The original cover caused a little controversy. It shows the band topless and sweaty. The press said Rammstein depicted themselves in this image as "Herrenmenschen". Richard says: "Das ist völliger Quatsch, das ist einfach nur ein Foto" (totally stupid. It is just a photo.) Till adds, that it was a quick shot on a parking lot somewhere in Berlin. North American versions had a different cover, comprised of the band members' faces from inside of the original booklet, placed side-by-side. Rammstein's first commercial logo was made for Herzeleid by Dirk Rudolph. This variation uses a thinner "T" character than what is used in later logos. Booklet The booklet shows the lyrics for Herzeleid, Das alte Leid and Heirate mich in French. According to Till it was just a fun idea because a friend of the band was French. Fun fact is, that the French translation for the title track is the translation of the demo of the song. The booklet also shows six single-member pictures, which were later combined to form the North American cover of the album. Formats File:Herzeleid.jpg| Standard album Released in a jewel case. File:Herzeleid_us.jpg| North America album Released in a jewel case. Different cover. Released on November 24, 1998. File:Herzeleid_vinyl.png| Black vinyl Black double vinyl. Released in 2015 as part of the XXI box set. Released separately on December 8, 2017. Herzeleid was released on CD in many countries; German first press versions sometimes had black stickers on the front of their cases. The USA and Canada had alternative front covers, and were released by Slash Records, but still retained the same songs as on the German version. XIII Bis Records in France released Herzeleid on CD, as well as most of Rammstein's releases before 1999. South Korean CDs excluded the song Das alte Leid from the tracklist and booklet, although the track is still on the CD. Some editions of the Herzeleid CD were censored. Some copies had "Schulhof" and "töten" beeped out during Weißes Fleisch, and other versions had these words removed from the CD's lyric booklet, but not from the song itself. Countries such as South Korea, Poland, Germany and the US (among others) produced commercial MCs for the album. European countries received cassettes featuring the original cover, but US MCs featured the different cover that they also used on CDs. A very scarce number of German CDs were released with stickers to promote Rammstein's concert on September 27, 1996 slotted in the back of the case, in front of the insert artwork. A Motor Music Vorabcassette of the album was released; there are two different variations of this tape, but the only difference is the appearance of the eszett (ß) character used in the title of Weißes Fleisch. The only time Herzeleid has ever been released on Vinyl is on the XXI boxset, and the subsequently released individual LPs from said boxset. Menhir As a promotional item, 50 few record stores got a Rammstein menhir. It is about 140cm high and 60cm thick at its thickest part. Front and back show two spaces for about three to five CDs each. The letters "Rammstein Herzeleid" are clearly visible on back and front. The stone is made of plastic. It was sold a few times on eBay but is one of the rarest promotional items of Rammstein. Two general variants exist; one, painted in the common browns and greys of a rock, and another appears to be pure white, with grey dots and marker pen scribbles. The grey one bares the standard dimensions (140cm high, 60cm thick), but the white variant appears to be much larger at its thickest part, too. Promotion The album was released as a promotional item in the so-called "Riech!"-box. The box included the album, a little bottle of the perfume "Obsession" by Calvin Klein and promotional sheets about the album. The following is the text from these promotional sheets: Tracklist Trivia The direct translation of "Herzeleid" is "heartache"; however, according to an interview on Talking Metal's podcast in 2007, Richard Kruspe stated that it doesn't translate to "Heartache", but in the German language, it simply means "heartbreak". The album is a culmination of the relationship troubles of all but one of the six band members, hence the title "Herzeleid". The album was originally going to just be named Rammstein. This is evidenced from their old demo tapes referring to the album as "Rammstein (Demo-Version)", Rammstein (Demo-Version) RAMMSTEIN as well as the A Journey Into Sound IV Tape 1, which has the following text on its artwork: "Rammstein - Rammstein (taken from the forthcoming Album Rammstein)". Sources Category:1995 Category:Releases Category:Albums Category:Rammstein Category:Herzeleid